In the Closed Ward
by Dylan S. Thompson
Summary: Josephine Lafeyette is a trainee healer whose 1st day isn't going well at all. Neville Longbottom is an 11 year old boy who is visiting his parents. When they meet, they don't expect to impact the other's life in any way, but they couldn't be more wrong.
1. Chapter 1

In the Closed Ward

Chapter 1 – July 30th, 1991

Today was Josephine Lafayette's very first day as a trainee at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Josephine, or Josey as she liked to be called by her friends, was eighteen years old, born and raised in Paris, schooled as Beauxbatons until she was sixteen, and then sent to Hogwarts for her last two years to study to become a healer. Josey was kind, beautiful, intelligent, and independent. Still, despite her training, skills, and natural confidence, Josey was an absolute wreck on her first day. Every time she was asked to answer a question or perform a healing procedure her mind went entirely blank and all she could do was stare in gape-mouthed horror as that damning look of disappointment flitted across her superiors' eyes. Halfway through her first day, Josey was wracked with insecurity and contemplating quitting. When she was told to patrol the Closed Ward and work on her personal interaction skills by conversing with family members of patients, she was convinced that she was being shunted aside like some embarrassment to the profession of healer. It was pure chance, or luck, or fate, or whatever that the first person she talked to was Neville Longbottom.

He was standing between two beds, at the end of them, with his hands at his side. He wasn't crying or talking or shifting uncomfortably like most other visitors; he was just standing, looking. Josey almost decided not to approach the kid, who couldn't be more than twelve, because of his unusual behavior, but quickly told herself that that was absolutely no way to improve in anything. Steeling herself, she began to walk quietly across the ward, debating how to approach him. She had a feeling that the usual 'cheery helper' route wasn't the way to go, so, as she got closer, she decided to just wing it.

She came up beside him and mimicked his posture, except she put her hands behind her back. She stared ahead in silence for a minute, then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed him furtively look at her. It only lasted a second, but the nervousness evident in just that one movement brought a smile to Josey's face. Still smiling, Josey produced her own furtive, nervous-seeming glance, but quickly returned to her original position. As she'd hoped, a small smile appeared on the child's face.

Leaning over slightly she whispered conspiratorially, "Hey, I'm Josey. Who're you?"

The boy reddened slightly as she spoke. Josey wasn't very surprised; guys reacted like that to her all the time. Still, she had a sneaking suspicion that the boy reacted similarly whenever anybody talked to him. They boy took a breath and said, "Neville."

Now that they were introduced, Josey turned fully towards him and stuck out her hand. "Nice to meet you," she said pleasantly.

"You t-too," he said timidly, shaking her hand.

Josey suggested that they sit down in the chairs across the room, and Neville followed her, looking around furtively as if suspecting someone was playing a trick on him. A wave of sympathy washed over Josey as she watched the movements of Neville, wondering what in his life had made him so jumpy. Once they were seated Josey took her first good look at the boy, but as she did so Neville looked down, blushing red, uncomfortable because of her scrutiny, so Josey quickly looked away.

"How old are you, Neville?" Josey asked, wanting to take Neville's mind from her blunder.

Thankfully, Neville returned his gaze back to her, but any relief Josey felt was blasted away by the dark look that crossed his visage as he answered, "I'm eleven today."

Josey gulped, wondering why the hell she could do nothing right today, and out of sheer desperation, asked "Hasn't been the best of birthdays?"

Neville laughed, somewhat bitterly, but otherwise didn't respond. Josey sighed and slouched lower in her chair, pinching the bridge of her nose. Closing her eyes she said sadly, "Yeah, it hasn't been the greatest day for me either."

There was a second of silence, and then Neville asked, his voice tinged with genuine concern, asked, "What's wrong?"

Josey sighed again and said, "Everything. Today's my first day here and absolutely nothing has gone right. I haven't answered a single question right or been able to do a single procedure and when I look at the patients I have absolutely no idea what's wrong with them!" Josey took a shuddery breath, and, to her mortification, she felt her eyes start to water. "So my boss sent me in here as a punishment and told me to work on my people skills."

Josey snorted derisively. "To get me out of everybody's way is more likely. But, whatever reason I'm here, I can't even do this right! I've totally alienated you, and probably made you feel even worse!"

She covered her eyes with her hands and slid even lower in her chair, now practically laying in it. After her episode there was a shocked silence, and Josey had just convinced herself that Neville had ran out of the ward just to get away from her when she felt a small hand rest on her shoulder. Surprised, she looked up at Neville, only to find him smiling reassuringly down at her. This sign of maturity shocked her to her core. Most guys his age (hell, most guys any age) would just stare dumbly when a girl cried or otherwise needed comforting.

"You're crazy, Josey," Neville said. "I think you've been brilliant. People have been coming up to me all day trying to get me to talk, trying to cheer me up or being all sympathetic, which is impossible because none of them knew what was wrong with me in the first place. All day I've been giving people the silent treatment – only you got me to talk. See? Absolutely brilliant."

Josey peered up at him, finding it only a little abashing that she was seeking comfort from a boy seven years her junior, and asked, "Really?"

Neville nodded, and Josey inexplicably felt better. She sat up higher in her chair, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and said, "Thanks, Neville. I really needed someone to tell me that."

Neville's smile widened and he said, "No problem. I know what it feels like to think that everyone thinks you're a complete failure."

Josey didn't know what to say to that, so she quickly changed the subject. "So, why are you here?"

Neville smile faltered slightly, but he decided not to let what happened get to him anymore, so he didn't let it drop completely. Instead, taking a deep breath, he said, "Well, today's my first day here too. You know how I said today's my birthday?" Josey nodded. "Well, my Gran decided that eleven is old enough to tell me that she's been lying to me for as long as I've been alive."

"What?" asked Josey, stunned.

"Until today," Neville explained sadly, "Gran told me that my parents had been killed during the first war, fighting as Aurors. Today she expanded on that story."

Neville lowered his head and fell silent, though she could hear soft sniffles. This time it was Josey's turn to comfort Neville, laying her hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me," she said softly.

Neville lifted his head and shook it determinedly. Giving her a watery smile he said, "No, I think I should talk to someone, and it's not gonna be Gran."

Josey nodded for him to continue. Opening his mouth, Neville said in the calmest voice he could manage, "My parents were Aurors, that's true enough. They were two of the best Aurors the department has ever seen. But they didn't die during the war; they died right after it ended. A group of You-Know-Who's followers, led by someone named Bellatrix LeStrange, attacked my parents. Bellatrix and her cohorts refused to believe that You-Know-Who had really been defeated and she thought my parents knew where he was, which they didn't. Bellatrix refused to believe my parents as well, and she tortured them with something called a Cruciatus Curse until both of them were completely insane." Neville nodded to the beds he had been standing at earlier, and said, "That's them over there. Frank and Alice Longbottom."

Jose was too horrified to speak, and that turned out to be her saving grace. Her mind was a battlefield of conflicting emotions: horror at the ghastly deeds done to Neville's parents, indignant fury on behalf of Neville for how long he'd been lied to, deep shame about whining on and on about her insignificant problems coursed through her and caused her to blush, and she also felt a profound sense of admiration for Neville for his ability to set aside his problems and comfort her, especially since her difficulties were so much more minor than his. Just as she regained control of her thoughts and was about to open her mouth to say how sorry she was, Neville spoke again, sounding relieved.

"Thanks for not going on about how 'sorry' you are or anything like that. Whenever people find out my parents are dead I always get a big 'I'm sorry for your loss' or 'You're such a strong young man' or some other thing like that. All it really means is that they have absolutely nothing real to say. I'd rather they just stay quiet, like you. That's part of the reason I'm talking to you at all."

"Er," stuttered Josey, completely sideswiped by Neville's comment. "Right."

They sat in silence for awhile. Neville was completely content with the situation, but Josey felt that sitting in silence was probably not what her superiors wanted of her. She was at a loss, however, as to how to restart the conversation, so they went on in silence for what seemed like an eternity to Josey.

"Did you go to Hogwarts?" asked Neville suddenly, breaking the silence and startling Josey, both by the suddenness of the question and because of the drastic change in topic.

"Um…" spluttered Josey, who idly wondered if she would ever regain some semblance of control. "Yes?"

Neville's eyes lit up, and Josey was reminded how young he actually was. She expanded on her comment by saying, "I transferred there for my last two years because their N.E.W.T. level Healer program is world renowned."

"That's brilliant," enthused Neville. "I just got my Hogwarts letter today, too! Gran nearly cried when it arrived." Seeing Josey's confused look, Neville explained, "The family thought that I was a squib for the longest time. I didn't show any signs of magic until my uncle dropped me out of a window."

"Your uncle…dropped you out of a window?" Josey tried to clarify, giving up all hope of every understanding anything again.

"Yeah," answered Neville as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "I bounced."

Josey, desperately wanting a subject she could wrap her mind around, steered the conversation back to Hogwarts. "So, what house do you think you'll be in at Hogwarts? Maybe you'll be in Hufflepuff, like me?"

"Maybe, but…my parents were both in Gryffindor," said Neville timidly.

"Then I'll bet you'll be in Gryffindor too," Josey said confidently, smiling warmly, not really believing her words. From what she could tell about Neville from the few minutes they'd spent together he just didn't seem like Gryffindor material.

Judging by the doubtful look on his face, Neville agreed more with Josey's silent statement.

They started talking of Josey's times at Hogwarts, but, unfortunately, they didn't' get very far before a fellow trainee, Augustus Pye, poked his head into the ward and called out, "Lafeyette! Another set of rounds starts in five minutes! If you're late, you're dead!"

Josey looked at Neville apologetically, but he only smiled and shrugged, saying "Don't worry about me. I need to get home too."

"It was really great talking to you," Josey said sincerely, giving Neville a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Blushing redder than Josey had ever seen, Neville managed only to mumble, "You too, Josey."

Grinning, she gave him another kiss on the cheek and then bolted from the Closed Ward, determined to make her second impression better than her first. As she was bombarded with questions and information, Josey soon forgot about Neville Longbottom, and, as she talked with more patients and more family of patients, his face and story just became one of the multitudes. For the most part, in her first, frantic weeks, Neville stayed forgotten. Still, whenever she worked the Closed Ward she couldn't help but think of him, her first real interaction with anyone in the Hospital. And, a little over a month later, on September first, she couldn't help but wonder in which house he really ended up.

To Be Continued…

A/N: I'm not sure how long the next chapter will take, as I'm working on like three different stories at the moment. But I'll try to get it up as soon as possible, because I really love the friendship I have envisioned between Josey and Neville.


	2. Chapter 2

In the Closed Ward

Chapter 2 – July 30th, 1992

Even though it was only her first day, Josey liked being a second year trainee. All the crap that came with being at the bottom of the shitheap was now somebody else's problem, yet she wasn't given too much responsibility yet. It was like a little semi-vacation before the real work started as a third year. Not to mention the fact that all the male trainees were head-over-heels for her. That felt good too.

Josey had totally forgotten her meeting with the shy and troubled Neville Longbottom on her first day, so she couldn't explain what drew her to the Closed Ward time and time again as July drew to a close. Usually she excused her behavior by blaming it on morbid curiosity, like watching a splinching, and left it at that. When she entered the ward on July 30th, though, she found a boy of about twelve, slightly chubby and standing stoically between two beds, and the memories of the entire event were suddenly flooding her mind.

Part of her was mortified at remembering exactly how much of a mess she'd been back then, but elation surged through her warmly, swallowing up the mortification into non-existence. _How,_ she wondered, _did I forget as boy as sweet and mature as Neville?_

Shrugging this question off easily, excusing herself with stress and the sheer number of patients she'd seen since, Josey started off a canter across the room. "Neville!" she exclaimed as she got closer, throwing her arms open wide.

The boy's head shot up, his expression full of surprise, but it quickly became one of happiness when he saw who was calling his name. The boy began to speak, smiling widely, but before he could get a single word out he was pulled into a vise-grip of a hug. When he was released the smile seemed only to have grown, and had been joined by an embarrassed flush that would put Ron Weasley to shame. "Josey," he finally got to return her greeting, obviously amused by the older witch's behavior.

Josey dragged him over to the chairs across the room without a word and beckoned for him to sit down. Still grinning, Neville did so. As soon as they were settled, Josey asked, "So, how was Hogwarts? What house did you end up in?"

Mixed emotions traipsed across Neville's face at the rapid questions, but he finally settled into a proud grin and said, "I made it into Gryffindor!"

Josey's eyes widened in shock at the news, for she had truly expected him to be sorted into Hufflepuff, but she hid her reaction quickly and exclaimed, "That's wonderful! Congratulations, really, I'm sure your parents would've been proud!"

The exuberant grin alight upon Neville's face faltered and was replaced by a sadder, wistful one. Josey instantly regretted what she said, mentally chastising her tactlessness. She opened her mouth to apologize, but suddenly remembered that he didn't like that, so she snapped it closed. He did not notice her floundering, because he was gazing across the room at his immobilized parents. _What a thing to say, Josey, you twit!_ She thought fiercely, feeling terrible. _"Oh, you got into your parents' old house? That's great! Too bad they're practically dead and don't know who you are!"_

Josey continued to mentally berate herself harshly, but was soon pulled out of her internalized smear campaign by Neville, who said, "I think they are proud."

"W-what?" asked Josey, confused.

"I think they're in there, at least a little, that they can hear us, and I think they know who I am," responded Neville, hopefully.

Josey's heart went out to the boy as he voiced the futile opinion of almost every family member of almost every vegetative patient, and she placed her hand on top of his saying, "Sweetie, I know how easy it is to think that. A lot of people do, but there's just no evidence to support it, and all it does is unnecessarily raise hopes. Even when a person does get better from a curse induced coma, they never say they remember being aware."

Surprisingly, Neville was nodding along in agreement. "I know, I know. I've been reading all I can on comas, especially Cruciatus-induced ones. I was convinced for the longest time that I was just letting my wishes get the best of me, but I think my parents' case is different."

Josey couldn't help but cynically think, _Everyone wants to think their insert relation 's case is different, Neville. _Still, she didn't voice these thoughts, not wanting to upset Neville again.

"The first time I was here, before you came in, I spent hours with my parents. I told them all about my life up till that point, all about how Gran was doing, basically everything and anything I could think of, and I spent just as much time just sitting with them in silence, holding their hands. And I do that every time I visit. A couple of weeks ago I came here and I had my hands on my mm's bed, but wasn't holding it yet." Neville took a breath and looked at Josey meaningfully, "Josey, she grabbed my hand then, completely without help."

Josey sat in total silence, stunned by what Neville had just said. _Or, _a smug part of her mind that hated when she was cynical said, _maybe your case could really be different._

"Are…are you sure?" she asked stupidly, wondering how someone could knock her off-kilter so often.

Neville nodded and said, "Positive. I tried it out a few more times and it always eventually happened."

"That's…amazing," breathed Josey. "Have you told anybody else about this?"

"Nope," answered Neville, blushing fore some reason, "Just you. I wanted to wait awhile and make sure that this isn't just some fluke or strange phase."

Josey smiled and said, "Alright, then it's out little secret."

They sat in silence for a moment, but then Neville asked, "So, how have you been?"

Josey shrugged and said, "It's getting better. Everyone dumps all the work that they don't want to do, like draining pus from bites, onto you when you're a first year, so that's always terrible. But you do learn a lot, so that's always good. Now that I'm a second year, though, it's much better." Josey grinned deviously at Neville and gleefully said, "There are first years below me now that I can dump everything on!"

Neville laughed along with her and said, "Sounds like fun."

"Oh it is," replied Josey. "How about you? How was Hogwarts?"

Neville visibly blanched at the question and asked mournfully, "You remember your first day?"  
"It was mostly like that, except everyone was justified in thinking that I'm a failure," Neville said, sounding ashamed.

"C'mon," said Josey, trying to cheer him up, "I couldn't've been that bad."

"I melted twenty cauldrons," exclaimed Neville as if that explained everything.

Josey shrugged, trying to cheer her companion up. "So Potions isn't your thing."

"Or flying, transfiguration, Defense, or charms," Neville said, each item causing Josey to wince. "It's like I said before, I hardly have any magic. Everyone thinks that I'm almost a squib. The only thing I'm good at is Herbology."

Josey suddenly brightened and exclaimed, "Well, there you go!" Seeing Neville's confused look, Josey leaned forward and said, "Look, they don't tell you this at school, but you don't need to be great at everything to succeed in life. Unless you want to do something really hard, like being an Auror –"

"Or a healer," broke in Neville, causing Josey to blush slightly.

"Or a healer," she conceded before continuing, "Unless you want to do something like that all you need is one thing, and it looks like yours might be Herbology. If you become a Master in it you could work in a research or teaching capacity almost anywhere in the world."

"Really?" asked Neville hesitantly.

"Really," said Josey, with an air of finality. Neville smiled at her, thanking her for her support. Josey squeezed his hand and exclaimed, "Alright! Enough of this, tell me about the good parts of your year! Tell me about your friends!"

Neville chuckled at Josey's enthusiasm and said, "Well, I didn't really make any close friends, more like a lot of semi-close ones. There were five boys in my year, and I was kind of the odd one out."

"Like who?" prompted Josey. "Tell me about them."

"Well, the first person I met was this amazingly nice, but amazingly bossy girl named Hermione, and she helped me find my toad when I lost him. We were kind of close for the first couple of months we were there, no one else liked her, but then Harry and Ron, two of my dorm mates, saved her from a rampaging troll and they became inseparable."

Neville had the uncanny ability of saying the extremely odd as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world. Josey figured that she would eventually get used to it, but as of now it still caught her off guard. "Wait…rampaging troll?"

Neville grinned, obviously enjoying her confusion, and answered, "Yeah. One of our teachers let it in, don't ask, and it cornered Hermione in the bathroom. Harry and Ron actually locked it in there, but then they remembered that Hermione was in there and they went in and knocked it out with its own club!"

"Two eleven year olds did this?" asked Josey skeptically.

Neville nodded and said, "Yeah. Ron Weasley and Harry Potter."

Josey's eyes went wide as silver dollars as she exclaimed, "The Harry Potter!"

"Wha…?" asked Neville, confused.

Then, realizing why she was reacting the way she was, Neville burst out laughing, saying, "Oh, that! Ha ha, yeah, he's the Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. I've been around him for so long that I forgot how most people react."

"What's he like?" demanded Josey, beginning to feel foolish under Neville's humor-filled gaze.

"He's completely normal. He grew up with muggles, and didn't even know magic existed until Hagrid came and picked him up. So he had no idea how famous he was. It actually makes him pretty uncomfortable."

"So he has the scar and everything? You've seen it?"

"Of course I've seen it," said Neville. "I lived with the guy for a year."

Josey chuckled a little, really feeling foolish now, and said sheepishly, "Good point."

Josey absently rubbed her thumb across her bottom lip, a habit she'd picked up in the past year that she did whenever she was curious. She felt like a fool, fawning over a celebrity like this, but she couldn't help being inquisitive. Finally, she broke down and asked another question, "So, he's just normal?"

Neville shrugged and said, "Well, he's not stuck-up or arrogant or anything like that, but he's not just another normal wizard either. I mean, he got onto the Quidditch team this year, and we would've won the Quidditch cup because of him, but he was unconscious for the last game after beating You-Know-Who again."

"What!" exclaimed Josey, eyes wide and mouth agape. She tried to ask more, but found that the words stuck in her through, which was bone-dry from horror. Josey had only been seven when You-Know-Who had been defeated, but she still remembered enough from those dark years to make her blood turn to ice at the idea of having the dark wizard back. Swallowing hard, she tried to speak again and found that she could…barely. "W-what? How?" she whispered hoarsely.

Neville nodded solemnly, casting a glance to where his parents lay. "He was possessing one of our professors, Professor Quirrel."

"Quirrel?" asked Josey, shocked. How could Professor Quirrel, the timid, sweet man who had comforted her when her Grandfather ad died, possibly have anything to do with You-Know-Who?

But Neville was nodding again, and he began to recount the entire story, as Harry Potter himself had told it to him. He told of Harry's visit to Gringotts to get what he later found out was the Sorcerer's Stone, of their encounter with Fluffy, of Harry's adventure with Norbert, of Harry's discovery in the Forbidden Forest, and, finally, the tale of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's adventures in getting the Stone.

"So," said Josey with a smirk, after Neville had finished his story and her shock had finally worn off, "you tried to stop Harry Potter from defeating You-Know-Who?"

"I didn't know they were trying to stop him," exclaimed Neville defensively. "And neither did they, not really."

"I'm just kidding, Neville!" laughed Josey reassuringly. "I actually think what you did was really brave."

Neville smiled slightly, blushing, and said, "Well…so did Headmaster Dumbledore."  
"Really?" asked Josey with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," said Neville, obviously pleased with himself. "Gryffindor was in last place for House Cup, but Dumbledore added some last minute points because of what Harry and Ron and Hermione did. He gave fifty points each to Ron and Hermione, and then sixty to Harry, which tied us with Slytherin." Neville paused in his story, drawing himself up proudly, and then finished, "Then Dumbledore said, 'It takes a lot of courage to stand up to your enemies, but it takes just as much to stand up to your friends' and he gave me ten points and we won the Cup!"

"Neville, that's wonderful," exclaimed Josey, wrapping him into a congratulatory embrace.

His grin was happier than Josey had ever seen, and she felt her spirits lift at the sight of it. It felt good to see him so happy. Not content, not rueful, not wry, but happy, proud of himself.

"Thanks, Josey." Neville said, flushed with happiness and still grinning as wide as he could.  
"No problem," returned Josey. She opened her mouth to say more, but at that moment she caught a glimpse of the wall clock over Neville's shoulder and let out a gasp of surprise. "Oh, shi…shoot!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her chair. "Neville, I'm sorry, but I've got to go! I was supposed to be back with my attending Healer fifteen minutes ago! He's going to kill me!"

"Then stop explaining and go!" said Neville, laughing at her hysteria. Josey cast one last apologetic look in his direction and then rushed out of the ward at breakneck speeds.

_Oh shit, oh shit! He is going to fucking eat me alive! _Her mind screamed over and over as she ran.

To Be Continued…


End file.
